After a muted beginning, the Indian stock market welcomed 2025 with a bang on Thursday, surging more than 1,400 points, or 1.83 per cent, as auto stocks saw a bumper rally on the back of strong car sales data for December.

The Nifty auto index gained 3.79 per cent.

Sensex ended at 79,943.71, up by 1,436.30 points, or 1.83 per cent, and Nifty settled at 24,188.65, up by 445.75 points, or 1.88 per cent.

Sensex logged an intra-day high at 80,032.87, while Nifty surged to the day's high at 24,226.70.

Nifty Bank ended at 51,605.55, up by 544.95 points, or 1.07 per cent. The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at 58,108.20 after rising 657.30 points, or 1.14 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 19,080.35 after rising 120.55 points, or 0.64 per cent.

Indian stock market surged by nearly 1.6 per cent in afternoon trade on Thursday as heavy buying was seen in auto, energy, private bank, infra, commodity and IT sectors on Nifty.

At around 1.39 pm, Sensex was trading at 79,766.88 after rising 1,259.47 points or 1.60 per cent, while Nifty was trading at 24,112.25 after rising 369.35 points or 1.56 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,366 stocks were trading in green, while 529 stocks were in red.

Nifty Bank was up 386.45 points or 0.76 per cent at 51,447.05. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,740.40 after rising 289.50 points or 0.50 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 19,022.65 after rising 62.85 points or 0.33 per cent.

The domestic benchmark indices opened flat on Thursday as selling was seen in the PSU bank, pharma, FMCG, realty, media, energy and metal sectors on Nifty.

At around 9.31 am, Sensex was trading at 78,573.16 after rising 65.75 points or 0.08 per cent, while Nifty was trading at 23,766.05 after rising 23.15 points or 0.10 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,366 stocks were trading in green, while 529 stocks were in red.

According to market experts, Q3 corporate earnings are unlikely to register a rebound which means that investors have to focus on segments which will buck the slowdown.

Nifty Bank was up 21 points or 0.04 per cent at 51,081.60. Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 57,471.35 after rising 20.45 points or 0.04 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,961.95 after rising 2.15 points or 0.01 per cent.

Dense fog enveloped parts of Delhi on Thursday morning, causing visibility to plummet and disrupting normal life.

The temperature dipped to 10 degrees Celsius at 5:30 a.m., and flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport faced potential disruptions due to reduced visibility.

According to the Delhi Airport authorities, runway visibility ranged between 200 to 500 meters, while general visibility dropped to zero at 6 a.m. Flights equipped for low-visibility operations were able to land, but others were likely to face delays or diversions.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for dense fog in Delhi and neighbouring areas, including Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurgaon, warning residents of poor visibility and challenging commuting conditions.

India's total exports of goods and services in 2024 are projected to exceed Rs 69,58,886 crore ($814 billion), which represents a 5.58 per cent increase compared to the corresponding figure of Rs 65,69,907 crore ($768.5 billion) in 2023, according to figures compiled by Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI).

This growth is driven by a robust 10.31 per cent rise in services exports to Rs 31,82,793 crore ($372.3 billion), while merchandise exports are expected to grow at a more modest pace of 2.34 per cent to Rs 37,74,384 crore ($441.5 billion) amid global geopolitical uncertainties such as the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Ukraine-Russia war.

The report highlights India's evolving export landscape, with high-value sectors like electronics and machinery gaining a bigger share in the export basket since 2014 while traditional sectors such as garments and textiles are witnessing a decline.

The domestic benchmark indices opened flat on Wednesday as selling was seen in auto, PSU bank, financial service, pharma and metal sectors on Nifty.

At around 9:35 am, Sensex was trading at 78,054.12 after declining 84.89 points or 0.11 per cent, while the Nifty was trading at 23,617.55 after declining 27.25 points or 0.12 per cent.

The market trend remained positive. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), 1,538 stocks were trading in green, while 621 stocks were in red.

According to market experts, the New Year began on a sombre note for the Indian equity market.

As Delhi welcomes the New Year, the Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 239 at 8 a.m. on Wednesday which falls in the 'poor' category. A layer of fog enveloped the city, reducing visibility amid cold weather conditions.

The national capital, on Monday, experienced a brief improvement in air quality, with levels moving into the "moderate" category following significant rainfall over the weekend.

On New Year’s Day, Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 8.05 degrees Celsius, with the maximum likely to reach 17.98 degrees Celsius under clear skies, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) announced via social media platform X on Tuesday that Delhi recorded its highest number of "Good to Moderate" air quality days in 2024, with 209 such days. This achievement, excluding 2020, a year heavily influenced by COVID-related lockdowns, indicates consistent progress in air quality management.

At least 138.34 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated so far, while 67 million Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) numbers have also been created, the Ministry of Electronics and IT said in its year-end review on Tuesday.

India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) drives accessible and secure public services, transforming the digital economy.

Key achievements include 138.34 crore Aadhaar numbers being generated.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) achieved 15,547 crore transactions worth Rs 223 lakh crore from January to November this year, ‘showcasing its transformative impact on financial transactions’ in India.

The asset quality of India’s banks has improved further with their gross non-performing assets (GNPA) declining to 2.6 per cent of total advances in September 2024 which is the lowest level in the last 12 years, according to the RBI’s latest financial stability report.

The net NPA ratio was around 0.6 per cent, according to the RBI's December 2024 issue of the Financial Stability Report (FSR).

"Buoyed by falling slippages, higher write-offs and steady credit demand, the gross nonperforming assets (GNPA) ratio of 37 scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) fell to a multi-year low of 2.6 per cent," the report stated.

The improvement in asset quality of SCBs was broad-based across sectors and bank groups, according to the report.

Even as India’s merchandise trade deficit has come under some pressure, robust services exports and healthy remittances flow should help keep the country’s current account deficit (CAD) in the safe zone during the current financial year (FY 2024-25), according to a Crisil report released on Monday.

“We expect CAD at about 1.0 per cent of GDP in fiscal 2024-25, as against 0.7 per cent last year. In addition, the impact of geopolitical issues will remain a monitorable,” the report stated.

The Crisil report highlights that India’s current account deficit (CAD) was largely unchanged at $11.2 billion (1.2 per cent GDP) in the second quarter (July-September) of fiscal year 2024-25 compared with $11.3 billion (1.3 per cent of GDP) in the corresponding year-ago quarter. Sequentially, though, the metric, which reflects a country’s external payments position, widened slightly from $10.2 billion (1.1 per cent of GDP) in the first quarter.